Poke

Everybody knows the Broadway and movie musical “My Fair Lady.” But not everyone is as familiar with its literary source. It all began with George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play “Pygmalion.” With characteristic wit, the great playwright-philosopher probed the English class structure. Things get interesting when know-it-all professor Henry Higgins decides to undertake the re-education of a poor Cockney flower girl named Eliza Doolittle. Can simply learning to speak like a lady upgrade her station in life?

Ed Dickson had an abbreviated practice Saturday, but it wasn't his choice. The Ravens tight end said he was poked in his right eye by a teammate during a red-zone exercise early in the session at M&T Bank Stadium. “I thought I would be good, but my vision was kind of impaired,” he said. “So they took me out as a precaution.” Dickson's eye was red as he spoke in the locker room after practice. Dickson said he thought he could return, but his vision became blurry. “I got poked pretty deep in my eye,” he said.

Part of last summer's nature-find collection included brittle branches my kids snatched from the woodpile at our friend's cabin.They were just what we needed for a creepy Halloween table centerpiece.Actually any thin, bare branches will do. Paint them if you wish. Poke them in a clay pot and anchor them with floral foam.Decorate the container with orange or black construction paper and stickers. Cover the exposed foam or plaster with Spanish moss.Here are some ideas to decorate the spooky branches:* Poke orange and black gumdrops onto the branches.

Everybody knows the Broadway and movie musical “My Fair Lady.” But not everyone is as familiar with its literary source. It all began with George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play “Pygmalion.” With characteristic wit, the great playwright-philosopher probed the English class structure. Things get interesting when know-it-all professor Henry Higgins decides to undertake the re-education of a poor Cockney flower girl named Eliza Doolittle. Can simply learning to speak like a lady upgrade her station in life?

Here are three ways to get seedlings started:1. Save and wash three or four small yogurt containers and poke drainage holes in the bottom. Fill 3/4 -full with potting soil. Poke a hole in the soil in each container and drop in a seed. Mist with water.2. Place three or four peat pellets (available at garden shops) on a dish and gradually add warm water. When the pellets are fully expanded (about 20 minutes), pour off excess water. Poke a seed in each pellet. Label each pellet.3. The easiest way to watch seeds sprout is to set each one on damp cotton on the bottom of a clear glass jar. Keep the cotton moist.

Police shot and killed a state prison inmate in a Prince George's County cemetery yesterday, hours after he overpowered four correctional officers and escaped from Laurel Regional Hospital, shot a motorist in the parking lot and commandeered the driver's car. Kelvin D. Poke, 45, who was serving a life sentence for violent crimes that included kidnapping, fled from the hospital after shooting off his leg shackles, prompting a lockdown of area schools and...

A prison inmate who escaped from a Laurel hospital was being supervised by only one correctional officer after his partner took a break and left him alone, police said yesterday. The state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is also investigating why Kelvin D. Poke was not wearing handcuffs when he overpowered two officers, took their guns and fled in a stolen vehicle Wednesday, setting off a manhunt that ended with his death seven hours later in a police shootout in a Prince George's County cemetery.

The trouble with Julyis its brevity.After the fireworks,a weekend at the beach,a barbecue, a baseballgame or two, August blooms,heavy with the aroma ofschool. Children for whomMonday and Friday are equalcatch the timeless fireflies,poke holes in jar lids, scoldthe dog for chewing upthe plastic wading pool,help Mrs. Moore paint her porch,Mr. Williams pick his beans.The Kents in safari hatsfor ''B'' day, rob their hivesof honey, politicians leaninto microphones, storesstock wools, all in this smallspace between school and school.

Bill Clinton may well celebrateWhen Congress the Hill doth vacate;Though vetoes are nearing,There's nary a hearing --Let's hear it for month number 8.* * *According to Vanity Fair,Newt's better half less couldn't careAbout being first spouseIn her hubby's White HouseAnd hopes that he never gets there.* * *Seems Packwood's advances were suchThat they seldom amounted to much;If he can't recall who,The women sure do --What he kept, many say, was in touch.* * *Diverse definitions of need:(1) elderly poor folks who pleadFor help to keep warmAgainst (2)

Shaken by two violent escapes by prison inmates, a health care group that oversees a Laurel hospital announced that it will no longer admit inmates as patients in nonemergencies until security procedures are tightened. The announcement comes a day after state police said that Kelvin D. Poke, a Jessup Correctional Institution inmate who was taken to Laurel Regional Hospital after complaining of chest pain, was being guarded by just one corrections officer and was not wearing handcuffs -- two apparent violations of Division of Correction policy.

One of the best Christmas cards out there can be found at NotCafeHon, the Twitter feed created after cafe owner Denise Whiting trademarked the word "hon. " There's a photo of Whiting celebrating with the mayor who came to her rescue a little over a year ago when the restaurant's pink flamingo was imperiled. "Merry Christmas," the card reads, "from a disgraced woman who stole from Baltimore … and Sheila Dixon . " On the same topic, a Baltimorean posted on Facebook: "Just realized that the Boycott Cafe Hon Facebook Page is registered under the username ' Cafe Hon .' What a huge mistake on Cafe Hon 's part for not getting to it first.

Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen and a number of his players criticized the campus newspaper Tuesday for an editorial cartoon making light of the motor-scooter accident that left offensive lineman Pete DeSouza hospitalized with multiple leg fractures. The cartoon by Morgan Noonan in The Diamondback, an independent campus daily, depicts a woman addressing a player in helmet and full pads. "I didn't think there was a game today," she says. The player replies: "There isn't.

A security guard who identified two suspects in the killing of former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris stuck to his story Tuesday during pretrial motions, even as defense lawyers tried hard to rattle his recollection of the events. In his second consecutive day on the witness stand in Baltimore Circuit Court, the guard, Germyn Murray, insisted that he knew two of the men seen leaving the scene of Harris' murder in a surveillance video were Charles Y. McGaney and Gary A. Collins.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - -Humble and reflective earlier in the day, Michael Jordan showed once again Friday night why his competitive fire never will be extinguished as he officially entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Jordan basically trash-talked his way through his acceptance speech, thanking all those slights - real and perceived - for adding "wood to the fire" and motivating him during his unparalleled career. He then closed with a tantalizing thought. "One time you might look up and see me playing the game at 50," Jordan said, drawing chuckles.

Shaken by two violent escapes by prison inmates, a health care group that oversees a Laurel hospital announced that it will no longer admit inmates as patients in nonemergencies until security procedures are tightened. The announcement comes a day after state police said that Kelvin D. Poke, a Jessup Correctional Institution inmate who was taken to Laurel Regional Hospital after complaining of chest pain, was being guarded by just one corrections officer and was not wearing handcuffs -- two apparent violations of Division of Correction policy.

A prison inmate who escaped from a Laurel hospital was being supervised by only one correctional officer after his partner took a break and left him alone, police said yesterday. The state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is also investigating why Kelvin D. Poke was not wearing handcuffs when he overpowered two officers, took their guns and fled in a stolen vehicle Wednesday, setting off a manhunt that ended with his death seven hours later in a police shootout in a Prince George's County cemetery.

WASHINGTON -- Supporters of President Bush and Gov. Bill Clinton, in referring to Ross Perot, like to warn voters about "buying a pig in a poke" -- accepting someone without knowing what they're getting. The expression might just as well apply to recent Supreme Court appointments, as graphically illustrated in the court's controversial 5-4 decision on abortion rights.In each of the last five appointments -- Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy by President Ronald Reagan and David Souter and Clarence Thomas by Bush -- the general assumption was that the conservatives named would ultimately vote to overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.

Third in a three-part series. There's no denying that soft-shell crabs are a little weird. They're slimy and slippery when raw. Cooked in a sandwich, their spindly legs and grabby claws poke out from the slices of bread and make some people wonder, "Do you seriously think I'm going to eat that?" And although even some lifelong crab-loving Marylanders believe soft-shell crabs to be a different species than the well-known blue crab, they are in fact the same creature. Soft crabs are simply blue crabs that have recently molted, shedding their hard shells to reveal a paper-thin exoskeleton that hardens within hours.

Police shot and killed a state prison inmate in a Prince George's County cemetery yesterday, hours after he overpowered four correctional officers and escaped from Laurel Regional Hospital, shot a motorist in the parking lot and commandeered the driver's car. Kelvin D. Poke, 45, who was serving a life sentence for violent crimes that included kidnapping, fled from the hospital after shooting off his leg shackles, prompting a lockdown of area schools and...

As a chorus of tubas played "The First Noel" at Baltimore's Inner Harbor yesterday, Santa Claus started a fistfight with a figure he claimed was a Santa impersonator. The two Santas rolled on the bricks, swinging and clawing at each other as children watched, confused. "It's a Santa brawl!" someone shouted. But careful observers in the crowd wondered whether either combatant was the authentic Jolly Old Elf. One Santa, it seems, was wearing a gas mask, the other a skull mask beneath a red cap. And, when the scrap was over, the two Santas helped each other up - to the applause of 13 other Santas - some wearing sunglasses, combat boots and fishnet stockings along with the standard red-and-white coats.